1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a barrel lock having a combination lock associated therewith, whereby the bared lock may be removably inserted and reliably locked within the barrel of a hand gun to prevent the accidental and unauthorized firing of the hand gun without requiring any manufacturing changes to the gun.
2. Background Art
The careless handling and/or storage and/or unauthorized use of a firearm (e.g. a hand gun) is known to result in many serious injuries and deaths. Young children who gain access to a loaded hand gun in their own home without the knowledge or supervision of an adult are particularly susceptible to inflicting life threatening wounds to themselves and others around them. In many cases, hand gun owners have attempted to either hide their guns or lock their guns away in cabinets, drawers, etc. However, these efforts have proven to be largely unsuccessful, because unsuspecting children are often able to find the hand guns and the ammunition to be loaded therein. Moreover, the gun owner sometimes forgets to unload his gun or to lock the cabinet or drawer in which his gun is placed, or he carelessly leaves the keys in easy sight of an individual not authorized to use the gun or not sufficiently trained in proper safety methods.
In an attempt to overcome the problems inherent with the aforementioned efforts at child-proofing or locking away hand guns to prevent their accidental and unauthorized firing, various locking mechanisms have been introduced to disable the gun. However, such locking mechanisms usually require that the gun be modified which typically increases the manufacturing costs. In these cases, gun manufacturers have generally declined to change the way their hand guns are made for the sole purpose of accommodating any or all of the locking mechanisms.
Another proposed solution to preventing the accidental and unauthorized firing of a hand gun is a trigger lock that requires no modification to the hand gun. A common problem with such trigger lock is that a key must be used to remove the lock. In some cases, the key may be misplaced or lost. In emergency situations, a ready access to the key may not be possible. Consequently, many locking mechanisms have gone unused, thereby exposing hand gun owners to the risk of unsafe and potentially life-threatening situations wherever hand guns are stored and whenever hand guns fall into the hands of children and those who do not have suitable skill or exercise proper safety habits around guns.
Examples of conventional locking mechanisms that are interlocked with a hand gun to prevent the unauthorized use thereof are available by referring to one or more of the following U.S. patents:
______________________________________ 4,384,420 May 24, 1983 4,532,729 August 6, 1985 4,761,906 August 9, 1988 4,763,431 August 16, 1988 4,987,693 January 29, 1991 5,140,766 August 25, 1992 5,229,532 July 20, 1993 5,233,777 August 10, 1993 5,457,907 October 17, 1995 ______________________________________